So I can tune in to various Indiana cities and their talk shows during the crisis. It's great entertainment. It's the absolute core of their beings. They have more invested in 18-20 year olds putting the ball in the hoop than anything else in their lives. It's at the top of the list with a wide margin to second place. They call talk shows. They buy tickets. They buy merchandise. They help with buyouts. They live and die with each game, and during the off-season they are immersed in recruiting. A situation like the current one has a deeper. longer lasting impact on them then the death of a family member.

Cheating is a natural symptom of it all.

If Indiana loses quick in the tourney it was the turmoil, a story to be repeated at the supper table in front of the youngsters 20 years from now. A ready made excuse. If they win it was the turmoil---a rallying around, heart wrenching, emotional real life fairy-tale they wil be repeating in front of the youngsters 20 years from now. A ready made HOOSIERS.

In reality it was that they just played poorly one game, or got hot for a couple weeks. Either way something that players have done repeatedly since the game was invented.

The story line and particulars in the movie HOOSIERS is almost total bullshit.

Was recalling the innocent days of HOOSIERS and how we need to go back to that. He said he had watched the movie over 200 times. Literally. He had it counted. His wife was getting irritated with it.......He said he had been up till 4 in the morning breaking down the video of the Northwestern game he had taped.

Could whine and cry about this topic. Evidently everything and anything.

It's his supporters. In the general this will become more scrutinized and a bigger problem. He's on the platform talking about hope and change, and his supporters are bitching, crying, and dumping on people.

There's no way in Heaven, Hell, or on earth if Hillary was in the position today that Obama was in, that I'd be looking for stuff to gripe about from the moment I woke up.

But we'll have to tone down the holier than thou stuff. It has way too much of a republican aroma for my taste.

In a general, that the media is going to poke it's head up and state the plainly obvious----McCain has a much more extensive record of working with the opposition party than Obama, despite that being a cornerstone plank of the Obama campaign.

Obama hasn't won a big state yet in the primary. I don't know if it's wise to automatically chalk them up to him in the general. There's no caucuses in the general.

If you are going to use polling data 8 months before the fact as some kind of proof, I'm going to be forced to call you delusional, although I know the Obama camp doesn't like that terminology.

You thought Obama had no chance a while back, using the polls.

I'm predicting it will be close.

The republicans have fucked up pretty often.........Who was the last democrat to get over 50 percent and win big?

Will also wet their pants as the general draws close. They've been somewhat favorable so far towards Obama, but eventually it will be "Can he protect us?"

But I'm not bitter.

It's like sports. You got a hot team and everyone thinks they are going to roll on, and all of a sudden they are up against an opponent with a unique offense or defense that they don't handle well. All of a sudden you are behind. At that point you just play on, make some hard fouls, and try to get them mad or to mess up. Get some penalties or free points on technical shots. That's just the way it is.

The Obama people appear to me to be the bitter ones at the way it is. It's not that big a deal.

Is bogus and will not influence anyone. But this pastor of his church is a different story. I don't know everything this guy has said or preached or written, or who he has defended or complimented, but I'm sure we'll get all of it eventually. This is the guy Obama sits and listens to at services. That can hit home with voters.

I'm not one to beat on a dead horse but this is a nerd problem.

Cheating is as American as apple pie. Been going on in all fields of endeavor since before we were America. It's why we can make some half-assed claim to be "the greatest country in the world."

But today sports has climbed the Everest of importance in society, all towards the wallet and psyche of the nerd. Who has never accomplished anything of note in the field, but who lives and dies with the players and the games and the rings.

Now the nerds, fan and media variety, have found a way to inject themselves and actually become a big part of it. At least in their own warped minds--the self-imposed judge and jury role. They will decide what to recognize and what to reject. What is real and what is not. What deserves awards and what does not. Who cheated and who didn't. Needless to say, with their pre-conceived prejudices stepping up front and center in their analysis, and with limited evidence and knowledge of the present discussions or overall situation, or of the past.

As I have said before--The steroid era is a moral outrage, asterisked by the nerds, but the old all white leagues are the stuff of legends.

It's a damn joke.

Should root for Hillary to stay in and fight to the end. Then if the Obama house of cards collapses in the general they can blame it on her.

Of an Obama-McCain campaign as much as possible. The hard-core constituency of each is sanctimonious and holier than thou. Those kind of exchanges get old after about 48 hours.